strut braces

[ocallen]

Is there a BMW strut brace as an original part for the E30?

[placey]

there's definately hartge braces. maybe alpinas too....

paul

[Cotty]

The Zone Shop does a replica of the hartge brace, made by Sparco.

Twin tube in alloy with silver finish, just click on the Zone Shop button at the top of the page

[garyp_E30_325i]

The Zone Shop does a replica of the hartge brace, made by Sparco.

- I have the Sparco strut braces (front & rear) on my car, easy to fit and they make a huge difference! Great buy!

[HillclimbE30]

How much of a difference did the rear brace make or did you put both on together? Only using front at the moment

[garyp_E30_325i]

How much of a difference did the rear brace make or did you put both on together? Only using front at the moment

At first I put the front brace on itself - it did make a difference. Then I added the rear ~1-2 weeks later, however I also done all the suspension bushes at the same time (i did everything over a ~3 week period). The handling got better each time, but after she was done (added a SPAX PSX kit too) the handling's night & day!!!!

Before deciding to do this I found a thread on a US BMW forum - sorry can't remember which one which had a table of front & rear stiffness / torsion and the effect on handling for E30's & E36's. Basically it said if you stiffen the front much too much without similarly stiffening the rear then you can upset the handling.
It also had ratios for front vs rear to give the best results. Basically I decided to do both together and reckoned as Sparco are a top rally company I would buy their matched pair (assuming they've matched 'em) and not have to worry about over stiffening one end or the other. I'm damn pleased with the results, she drives fookin superb! Love her to bits!

[egk2]

I haven't seen an oem strut bar for the e30, really doubt bmw made one but one of the best and cheapest bar is a Sparco bar, they are hingeless
rigid design.